CBFP MOP 18 - CBFP Scientific and Academic Day - November 27, 2018

On the occasion of the last CBFP Council Meeting, the Belgian Facilitation announced the 18th Meeting of the Parties (MoP) in Brussels on 27 and 28 November.

The first day of the MoP will be mainly devoted to technical exchanges, organized around a "scientific" day and a "private sector" day (technical segment), the conclusions and recommendations of which will feed the debates and the commitments. during the second day (political segment).

The technical segment will take place in the new buildings of the Royal Museum of Central Africa on November 27, 2018.

Objectives

The organization of the scientific day is fully in line with the road map of the Belgian CBFP Facilitation. Research on the Congo Basin forests should be used to set priorities for action and to sound the alarm bells so that policy makers become aware of the situation and act accordingly. In addition, research must be able to guide; in a responsible and sustainable way, investments related to the forest / biodiversity sector and other economic sectors whose uncontrolled impacts can significantly affect natural resources in the Congo Basin. The research and training institutes will be able to share their work and results on the thematic commitments adopted by the partners during the 17th MoP (fight against the effects of climate change, forest governance, Fauna Biodiversity and poaching, valorisation of environmental services). In addition, this day will aim at strengthening the collaboration between the research and training institutions working on the Congo Basin forests in Central Africa and elsewhere. The establishment of a sustainable network of research and training is the long-term goal of this day.

Organization

Three research and training institutes were asked by the Belgian Facilitation for the organization of the scientific day, namely the two representatives of the Scientific College (CIRAD and UCLA) and the Royal Museum of Central Africa, which will host the event. In order to guide the exchanges around the thematic commitments mentioned above, three topics have been formulated :

"What role and what future for the Congo Basin forests in a context of climate change? "

"How to value the environmental goods and services provided by the Congo Basin forests? "

"The crisis of poaching and bushmeat: what impacts on forests and people in the Congo Basin? ".

In order to give the opportunity to a maximum of speakers to express themselves on these subjects, the presentations will be divided into two parallel sessions. As the number of presentations is limited, an abstract call was opened in August on the PFBC website, it will close on September 15th. Active participation of African researchers will be sought. The choice of speakers will be made by a selection committee based on the submitted abstracts and their relevance to the topics listed. The planned duration of each presentation was set at 15 minutes, including questions from the audience. The selection committee will ensure that the fairness of speaking time between the various stakeholders and the organizations they represent is respected. Participants who have not been selected by the selection committee will, however, have the opportunity to present their work and research results through the development of a space for poster display. During each of the two parallel sessions, 30 minutes will also be provided for speedtalks, allowing participants to present very succinctly their poster (s). The modalities for the submission of posters will soon be communicated on the CBFP website.

Articulation with Streams

During the Science Day, each of the three Streams' leaders will be given the floor to share with the scientific community the results of their work sessions held upstream of the MoP. This sharing of information will make it possible to formulate conclusions and recommendations, at the end of the parallel sessions, consistent with the results of the work of the Streams. They will feed into the technical panel discussions that will be held in plenary during the political segment of the 18th MoP.

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